Okay here's one for the seasoned session players. See if this has happened to you. And if it has, what the hell did you do about it?

From time to time some folks around here associated through work and a local festival get together to play some music. One guy is a friend, and really quite a good guy, but when it comes to these sessions, man. First he's telling you "how" to play. He wants to hear this and he wants to hear that. He has actually taken his fiddle bow and bopped my left hand in time with the music to get me to play it his way. But here's the killer; he'll get bored I guess and try to play slide on a mandolin...badly. Sounds like shite, like someone torturing a small Disney character.

What do you do with people like this??? I mean, he's a friend, and hurting peoples' feelings over music just seems kind of stupid. But I don't get this kind of thing. I tend to be very careful about how and what I play in a session. I listen for the big sound and try to go for something that collectively will sound great. But you get all kinds of players, don't you? So what do you do?

Any similar stories or suggestions? SB